Generally described, the manufacture of vehicles, especially large commercial vehicles, can require a specification of a number of components that are to be included with the vehicle. In many instances, a purchaser, or designer, can select from a number of options for each component to be included in the vehicle. For example, a purchaser may have the ability to select from more than a half dozen variations of fuel tank components for a commercial truck. In turn, each specified component can correspond to one or more pieces of geometry that make up the component. For example, a fuel tank component can include one piece of geometry that corresponds to the tank, two or more pieces of geometry that correspond to straps/brackets for mounting the tank and a number of additional pieces of geometry that correspond to mounting bolts that attach the tank to the straps/brackets and that attach the straps/brackets to the frame. As the number of component options increase, the design of the vehicle, often referred to as a frame design, becomes customized and unique for each truck.
In a typical large-scale manufacturing environment, automated robotic systems can be utilized to apply paint to the vehicle frame and its mounted components. One skilled in the relevant art will appreciate that automated robotic systems can be programmed by a series of instructions that control the movement of the robotic components, such as robotic arms, to achieve a desired result. As applied to painting, the automated robotic systems can be programmed to execute a series of steps designed to apply paint to the vehicle frame and its unique components.
Although automated robotic system can facilitate the manufacturing process, current approaches to generating a set of instructions for the automated robotic system can become deficient for highly customizable items. With specific reference to vehicle frame painting, current declarative programming approaches for automated robotic systems typically require that a customized set of programming instructions be generated for each vehicle frame to be painted. This current approach can be inefficient in the additional time to program specific instructions for each vehicle frame.
Thus, there is a need for a system and method for automating the generation of programming code for manipulating frame design components.